<p>Sleep disturbances among college students have gained global attention, with mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) proving effective for insomnia. However, the potential of mindfulness in virtual reality (MIVR) remains underexplored, especially in comparison to MBCT. This study aims to evaluate MIVR’s effectiveness on sleep quality in college students and compare it to MBCT. In this study, 53 patients were randomly assigned to MIVR group (<i>n</i> = 32) and MBCT group (<i>n</i> = 21). Both groups underwent their respective interventions for eight weeks. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was used to assess sleep quality, and the data were analyzed using SPSS 26.0. Compared with the pre-test, the MIVR group showed significant improvements in overall sleep quality and in individual components, including subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, sleep efficiency, sleep disorder, and daytime dysfunction at post-test (t = 2.82–8.54, <i>p</i> &lt; .05). After one month (follow-up), the MIVR group showed significant improvement only in sleep efficiency (<i>p</i> &lt; .05), yet the overall intervention effect persisted. Additionally, post-test comparisons between the MIVR and MBCT groups revealed significantly better outcomes in the MIVR group for overall sleep quality, subjective sleep quality, and daytime dysfunction (t = -3.01–2.81, <i>p</i> &lt; .05). However, after one month, the groups differed significantly only in sleep duration (<i>p</i> &lt; .05). The results showed that MIVR demonstrates a more pronounced immediate improvement in sleep quality compared to MBCT, suggesting that MIVR could serve as an effective alternative to MBCT.</p>